7 Practical Tips on How to Read Faster Without Losing Comprehension

Being a speedy reader can make a lot of things in life easier and less stressful. Being a slow reader can be super frustrating–enough to turn someone away from reading completely.

If you’re frustrated with your own reading speed, you should know it’s not a lost cause! If you’re wondering how to read faster…well, keep reading!

1. Look it Over

Ever gone into a movie theater without having watched the film’s trailer, only to find that you’re totally lost when the show starts? Lots of times, things are harder to understand when you’re just not sure what, exactly, you’re meant to take away from it.

Most reading materials don’t come along with a minute-and-a-half teaser trailer, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take the time to preview it before you start reading.

If you’re trying to read a book, take the time to read the plot summary on the back cover, taking note of all major characters and the general plot. If you’re reading a different material like an article or story, try skimming each of the article’s paragraphs–especially the last ones–to give yourself an idea of the general information the reading will cover.

Looking materials over before you dive into their content can help ground you in the reading, giving you an idea of what you’re looking to gain from the material. By looking over the material before beginning to read closely, you’ll know what major things to pay attention to, and your reading will be smoother and quicker!

2. Take it in Stride

Many people who struggle with reading speed have a difficult time because they tend to get lost in all the content at hand. If you’re looking to increase your reading speed, consider jotting down a list of questions before you start reading. Every so often, when you come to the answer to one of these questions, take a minute to consider it and regroup.

Breaking up your reading with small comprehension activities is a great way to ensure you don’t get lost while reading. Even if you don’t have a specific set of questions before diving into the reading, make a point to stop every so often, and to look back on what it is you’ve read so far.

Taking your reading in stride will help keep you reading at a good pace, and it’ll help you be sure you’re comprehending as you read, so you won’t spend time backtracking. Plus, if you’re reading for a school assignment, jotting down questions and notes will help you recall the information when it comes time to complete the homework.

3. Stay Focused

From other people in the room to your cell phone to that dripping faucet, chances are, your life is full of distractions. If you’re putting that book down every-other-paragraph to tend to something else that’s caught your attention, it’s no surprise you aren’t reading as quickly as you’d like!

When you decide to do some reading, it’s important that you stay very intentional about things like where you’re doing it, around whom, and when.

4. Don’t Whisper to Yourself

In reading and in life, it’s never a good thing to spend time whispering to yourself!

The act of muttering the words aloud as you go is known as “subvocalizing” and it can seriously slow down your speed and your reading comprehension. When readers subvocalize, they’re pronouncing every word on the page, rather than reading and comprehending in phrases, as they should be doing.

The average person reads approximately 300 words per minute, but subvocalizing while reading chops this number in half! Your eye span is about 1.5 inches at once, which means you’re capable of processing 9 words at once! Subvocalizing takes away from this leg up.

Instead of whispering the words, try following along with your finger. If this still doesn’t take care of it, try using your finger–and diligently chewing gum!

5. Skip a Little

Shhh! We won’t tell.

This trick works really well if you’re working on reading an academic article or other super-informational piece of writing. The fact is, in these situations, it’s pretty unlikely that every bit of information is totally relevant to you. If you find your mind wandering because you’ve come to a section that just doesn’t mean much to you, go ahead, skip over it.

Allowing yourself to jump around a bit will, of course, help your reading speed by giving you less material to get through–but also by allowing your brain to spend more time processing the important parts of the information.

6. Write a Recap

Something a lot of people prefer not to acknowledge is the fact that reading and writing are really tightly connected. If you work to get better and quicker at one, you’re likely to get better and quicker at the other.

So, when you’ve finished reading a piece of writing, consider writing a few sentence summary about what it is you took away from your reading.

This will allow your brain to process the content from a new perspective, and it’ll challenge you to really quiz yourself on how well you did. Plus, once you’ve read and written about the subject, it’ll be more deeply stashed in your brain, and you’re more likely to remember how efficiently you got through the content.

7. Time Yourself

If all else fails, make a game of it!

Try timing yourself to see how many words or pages you manage to read each minute, establishing a baseline for yourself. Set up rules that ensure you won’t be able to cheat (remember, you want to read quickly and process the information!).

Remember that practice makes…faster?? The more time you dedicate to reading quickly and thoroughly, the better you’ll become at it. Consider making a game of your reading speed, setting goals and rewards for yourself as you get better and better.

Want More on How to Read Faster?

The idea of being able to breeze through any reading material at all is a super exciting one!